Kagiyama leads at the Finlandia Trophy in search of another figure skating Grand Prix win

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Yuma Kagiyama of Japan skates during Men’s, Short Program, at the international figure skating competition Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Finland on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (Mikko Stig /Lehtikuva via AP)

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Kazuki Tomono of Japan skates during Men’s, Short Program, at the international figure skating competition Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Finland on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (Mikko Stig /Lehtikuva via AP)

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Kevin Aymoz of France skates during Men’s, Short Program, at the international figure skating competition Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Finland on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (Mikko Stig /Lehtikuva via AP)

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HELSINKI (AP) — Japanese figure skater Yuma Kagiyama was on course for back-to-back wins in the Grand Prix series after he took the lead in the short program at the Finlandia Trophy on Friday.

Skating to “The Sound of Silence,” Olympic silver medalist Kagiyama opened with a quadruple salchow and landed a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination for a score of 103.97.

That gave Kagiyama a commanding 13-point lead ahead of Saturday’s free skate, though it was nearly two points below his short score on his way to winning the NHK Trophy on home ice last week.

Countryman Kazuki Tomono was second on 90.78 after landing two quads in the only other clean skate of the day. Kevin Aymoz of France was third on 85.13 despite bailing out of a planned triple lutz.

In the women’s short program, Japan’s Hana Yoshida took a narrow lead against a field which was depleted by the withdrawals last week of world silver medalist Isabeau Levito of the United States and European champion Loena Hendrickx of Belgium.

Yoshida landed a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination, though the second jump wasn’t fully rotated, and a triple loop for her best short score of the season of 67.87 as she aims for a second career Grand Prix win.

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Kagiyama and Sakamoto lead Japanese sweep of men’s and women’s short programs at NHK Trophy

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Italian skater Lara Naki Gutmann got a spot in the competition because of the withdrawals and made the most of it with a personal-best 67.06 for second place with a program themed around the Netflix show “Squid Game.”

Sarah Everhardt of the United States was third on 66.28 for her Irish dance-inspired program.

The Finlandia Trophy is the fifth of six rounds in the Grand Prix series. Each skater or pair can compete twice at most. The best-placed skaters overall qualify for the Grand Prix Finals next month in Grenoble, France.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports